Special to WorldTribune.com

Three Americans and a Briton who stopped a jihadist who had opened fire on a crowded train were presented France’s top honor on Aug. 24.

French President Francois Hollande hailed the four men as heroes as he awarded them the Legion d’Honneur medal.

“Your heroism should be an example and a source of inspiration for everyone,” said Hollande. “You behaved like soldiers but also as men, responsible men.”

Ayoub El Khazzani opened fire on a Paris-bound train on Aug. 21, injuring a man before being wrestled to the floor and subdued by Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler, three long-time American friends on a European vacation. Briton Chris Norman also aided the Americans.

Stone, his arm in a sling and one eye bruised from the battle with the Moroccan suspect, said in an interview that he took action simply “to survive. He (the gunman) seemed like he was ready to fight to the end, and so were we.”

He was the first of the Americans to tackle the suspect.

“I kind of woke up from the middle of a deep sleep,” Stone said. “I turned around and I saw he had an AK-47 and it looked like” the weapon “wasn’t working, and he was trying to charge his weapon, and Alek just hit on my shoulder and said, ‘Let’s go,’ ” Stone said. “And I went down, tackled him and put him on the ground, and Alek came up and grabbed the thing out of his hand.”

But “it seemed like he just kept pulling more weapons,” Stone said. One of the weapons was a box cutter with which the suspect cut Stone’s hand.

The three friends then held Khazzani and punched him until he fell unconscious. “The guy had a lot of ammo,” Skarlatos said.

“It was just, mostly, survival. Hiding and sitting back is not going to do anything,” Sadler said.

Briton Chris Norman said he helped the Americans because he thought to himself, “OK, I’m probably going to die anyway so let’s go. I would rather die being active trying to get him down than simply sit in the corner and be shot.”

  Alek Skarlatos, Americans who foiled terror attack given France’s highest honor, Anthony Sadler, Francois Hollande, Spencer Stone, WorldTribune.com